In another life, Brandon K. Thorp, 27, and Penn Bullock, 21, could have both been Jo-Vanni Roman, the Rentboy.com escort who massaged George Alan Rekers. They did, after all, meet on MySpace, and we all known MySpace profiles lead to public humiliation. But while the journalist pair, who are a real-life couple, may have a habit of oversharing to credit for their union, they aren’t exactly the most forthcoming about how they found out Rekers would be returning from Europe with his rentboy.

They insist Roman didn’t tip them off, so there’s that. Rather, they insist it was an “authorized user” of his email account, who was going through Roman’s email contacts and found Rekers’ name. Sorry, an “authorized user” of his email account? What does that even mean? Assistants to executives might be “authorized users” of their boss’ email accounts, but who is delving into an escort’s email? His pimp? Tip: Change your password, Jo-Vanni.

And while breaking a wholly worthwhile report, they also come across terribly naive, speaking to the South Florida Gay News, about what this whole “Internet thing” is about.

A gay blog site, Unzipped.net, was dissatisfied that the New Times feature refused to reveal the hooker’s true identity, identified by Thorp and Bullock only as ‘Lucien’ in their article. Using the Rentboy search engine, they used the physical characteristics described in their article to track down a photo of the young man, whose picture they then published, along with his Rentboy.com ad. “I guess I expected too much from the gay community,” said Thorp, who had hoped against hope to keep the center of the story from becoming the story. […] “I don’t think there is any question that from the beginning we wanted to keep Lucien’s identity private,” Thorp stated. “His life was no one’s business. He was not a national figure trying to screw up people’s lives. We wanted to bring down ‘one of the bad guys,’ a theocratic totalitarian, and expose him for who he really was.”

What a silly idea, that one-half of the story could be kept hidden.

The pair also don’t seem to realize the treacherous territory they’re entering by insisting, “There is nothing disgraceful about a young college student supplementing his income as a sex worker. Roman is engaged in an honorable profession, as much so as a politician. He is an innocent bystander.” Perhaps, but that’s a curious position for objective journalists to take. But who needs objectivity when you’ve got this “Internet thing”!

They did a huge amount to blunt the anti-gay attacks from groups like Focus on the Family during the upcoming election season. And yet, will GLAAD give them an award? No, they’ll probably give an award to some straight guy over at NBC for writing a letter apologizing for an episode of some show that put gays in a bad light and promising to not do it again.

What a lovely couple. And what reporters! They may be just startign out and have much to learn but they’re off to a roaring start. I trust one day they’ll detail the entire story of the Rekers take-down. Meanwhile we’re ever-so-grateful for it. Keep up the good work boys!

May 11, 2010 at 9:52 am · @Reply ·

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

Sounds like bit of sour grapes Queerts people! I could not give one iota of a shit about just how these guys came upon this story……..They caused one of the most vile, reprehensive, hateful scumbags ever to infect the Gay community to crash and burn in a more spectacular way than the Hindenburg! They deserve our thanks and praise for their actions. Reekers was not some rightwing lunatic who procreates while listening to Rush Windbag. He was a truly dangerous force who was an advisor to the Attorney General of the State of Florida, someone who was in the running to be the Govenor. Reekers tossed hurt and hate on the Gay community for decades. How many Gay kids were tossed out of their homes by lemming like parents who took the vile poo spewed from this scumbags mouth as “facts”. How many commited suicide as a result of being disowned by their famlies and tossed out iinto the streets??? How many more were forced into the life on the streets peddling their cocks for cash just like Jovanni just to survive?????

Brandon and Penn helped every single one of us by tearing down this scumbag. I can guarantee any other Attorney General will take a long pause before paying someone like this scumbag over $60,000 for his “expert testimony” in future cases. But as usual there are those in the Gay community who are “concerned” about just how this expose came about. Do any one of you think those on the right who wish to tear down our community are concerned about what or where the crap their minions spew about us which they swear is fact based? We need others to emulate these two, show the scumbags who spend their lives attempting to deny our rights simply because they disapprove of who we sleep with that we will hit them twice as hard as they hit us. We will expose their lies and propoganda and tear them down with no holds barred……….

Yes indeed Thorp and Bullock were naive BUT they were also sincere. The gay community is not immune to the notion that “everybody loves a scandal” attitude and there will always be those who just love to smear all parties.

Jo-Vanni is hardly the only escort or horny man to work for or hop in bed with hypocritical homophobic bigot assholes. Rekers, Haggard, Craig, Foley, Ashburn, et al are but a handful who have gotten caught.

And lets not forget, Barney Frank, too, was caught in the act; he hid deep in the closet, he just wasn’t one of these anti-gay hypocrites.

For Thorp and Bullock, and all those aspiring to fight the fight, lets rethink how to cover the “Jo-Vannis” so that the others are encouraged to bring the focus against the true villains, the other Rekers who cause so much harm to gays and lesbians and our families.

May 11, 2010 at 10:12 am · @Reply ·

Chitown Kev

Thanks to both guys in the (apparently) happy couple.

May 11, 2010 at 10:12 am · @Reply ·

Pitou

@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: I COULDN’T AGREE MORE! These two ROCK for bringing this about, no matter how they came across this story. I’m so happy they did. Rent-boy “Lucien” needs to man up. He’s taking one for the team and he should be honored to be doing so. By spilling his guts, he’s helping bring about the complete hypocracy that is/are Anti-Gay “experts” and their organizations and the people associated with them. Kudos “Lucien”, and Thank You from the bottom of my heart!

Hopefully this will help the Florida Gay Adoption case already in progress which I notice seems to have a ruling delayed….why a ruling delayed..? Maybe Rekers testimony, which costs upwards of $120k, not $60, of taxpayer dollars, is about to be deemed inadmissable. FABULOUS!

Hopefully this will help put big scrutiny on any anti-gay “experts” testimony in any and all LGBT issues up for litigation all over this country.

This story is a wonderful, wonderful thing. By reading the above story, it sounds as if the author is a bit bitter that they or Queerty didn’t break the news first.

I can’t wait until this comes about for Tony Perkins, and Porno-Pete, and that NOM fucker. It’s just bound to. Oh Happy Days.

May 11, 2010 at 10:16 am · @Reply ·

B

QUEERTY wrote “The pair also don’t seem to realize the treacherous territory they’re entering by insisting, ‘… Roman is engaged in an honorable profession, as much so as a politician. …'”

What the two said is not original: in “The Pirates of Penzance”, William Gilbert’s dialog included the “Pirate King” saying, “I don’t think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest.” And the first performance was on December 30, 1879.

May 11, 2010 at 10:33 am · @Reply ·

Anon, anon

Pretty lame, queerty.

Putting an expression like “internet thing” in sarcastic quotes once is a snarky way of suggesting the naiveté of these guys. Doing it twice is redundant and doesn’t make any sense unless you’re actually quoting them.

How anyone writing in the yahoonews school of provocative headlines and empty stories can criticize these guys is beyond me.

May 11, 2010 at 11:03 am · @Reply ·

Ogre Magi

Bravo to these two and to all gays with an investigative bent:KEEP AT IT Reekers was not the first and he will not be the last!

May 11, 2010 at 11:43 am · @Reply ·

They're Lying

So the reporters were friends with an “authorized user” of the hooker’s email account, but they claim to have not known who the hooker was? Somethin in the milk ain’t clean.

May 11, 2010 at 12:25 pm · @Reply ·

Jaroslaw

#11 does it matter if the larger story is true? Bravo Plays Well, agree 100%

May 11, 2010 at 12:33 pm · @Reply ·

They're Lying

@Jaroslaw: How do you know if the larger story is true, if they’re lying?

It amazes me how some people keep attacking us for our scoop. Here’s a sampling of the conspiracy theories we’ve come across on the Internet. We’ve been told that Brandon is Jovanni’s brother, that Jovanni is Brandon’s ex-lover, that we had a threesome with Jovanni for the information, that we paid him off, that we tried to extort Rekers. It’s lies and it’s fucking unbelievable.

I love how the right wing thinks that saying there was a conspiracy somehow negates the fact that Rekers is a closet case, a hypocrite and a liar.

I don’t give a rats ass HOW they got the story. The fact is, they got it, it’s true, and it proves that the founders of these anti-gay groups, and these anti-gay advocates are mostly just hypocrites, liars, and sad pathetic wastes of lives. Good for you guys. Can’t wait for your next story!

Unfortunately, it said you guys got screen captures of “Lucien’s”
email “sent by a friend [Lucien] once entrusted with his passwords.” My advice to you is to get a good lawyer ASAP.

While laws vary from state to state, accessing someone’s email account without permission can result in criminal charges and being “entrusted” with passwords does not mean authorization to use the account (Lucien may have given the passwords to a friend he trusted merely to keep copies in a safe place).

If your source accessed the email account without permission illegally, “Lucien” might be able to sue the source for damages (particularly if as a result of the disclosure, he has to drop out of school or ends up estranged from his family), and you might be asked to divulge who that source is. Florida’s “shield law” does not give you unqualified protection, so it could be messy. And you just admitted in print that you might have obtained some information from a guy who had possibly committed a crime and obviously know who he is.

It may turn out that you are off the hook, but it would be really dumb not to check.

May 11, 2010 at 4:30 pm · @Reply ·

escortethic

You both used questionable journalistic practice. As bloggers and obviously not trained print writers, you were dismissive on sourcing, shady on facts and never made the story transparent in treating Jo-Vanni as a subject, not just your personal toy.

It’s obvious that SOMEONE was tipped off in order to get that photo and if it was Jo-Vanni, then he’s no escort: He’s a hooker who’s willing to do anything for a buck. Bravo to Jo-Vanni my ass- He’s just as smarmy as the guy he gave under priced massages to. They deserve each other.

The mainstream media has yet to fully run with this, as they actually VET their stories so they don’t have to apologize or backtrack in the future. This whole thing stinks of set-up and even thought Rekers is a liar and a cheat, ‘Lucien’ and the gang who dreamed this story up seem just as crooked.

May 11, 2010 at 4:41 pm · @Reply ·

Jaroslaw

Escortethic – it is indeed possible that there is more to this story.

But PLEASE spare us the supposed integrity of the print newsmedia. Here in Detroit, Mich. the parent company did everything it could some years ago to squash the union, consolidate two great dailies into one pathetic shadow of their former selves and many of the best reporters left for greener pastures for a number of reasons.

With a miniscule budget, due to the public not buying their garbage, there is hardly any money left to finance in-depth investigations. Far bigger papers are feeling the pinch with internet competition etc.

One last point (and only one example of many) – did the mainstream media give Jeff Gannon the suffocating coverage he (and the Bush Whitehouse that planted him) when it was discovered he was a fake correspondent lodging softball questions to make GWB look good?

May 11, 2010 at 4:56 pm · @Reply ·

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

@Penn: Gonna be kinda sorta blunt here Fuck them all! You guys did a tremendous service bringing down that vile scumbag. I want to vomit when I see posters crying about “set ups” and other crap. Nothing but bitter old queens who sit behind their keyboards pontificate and spew their nonsense. Guarantee not a single one of them has ever lifted a finger to help another person. Reekers did tremendous damage to the Gay community for decades. I wasn’t familiar with his brand of terrorism until this drama broke, and saw what a dangerous bastard he was. Comments like #20 cause me to want to make my PC a mobile device by tossing it across the room. He writes “someone was tipped off” how the fuck do you think that any news story written since day one came about??? I don’t know how you guys came to gather this info but sources and informants are part of the game. It is beyond belief that anyone who identifies as Gay can have anything but praise for you guys. Reekers lived a sick, demented lie. I am certain Jovanni’s was not the first cock he ever encountered besides his own. Sure there are going to be a lot more skeletons tumbling out of his vile hatefilled closet in the comming months.

His books, lectures, websites,testimony, and organizations all contributed harm both physical and mental to countless Gays for decades. He had the ear of persons of significant power, who accepted his advice and counsel. How many Gays were beaten because they accepted his crap that we are evil? How many Gay kids were tossed out of their homes because their Parents accepted his word that their kids were damaged goods? How many kids commmited suicide because of his wicked dogma??

This scumbag has Gay blood on his hands, you guys brought him down. And there are Gay persons who have issues with how he was brought down?? Those persons really need to reevaluate their priorities and ways of thinking. You guys did every Gay person a tremndous service and deserve nothing but praise……….

May 11, 2010 at 5:13 pm · @Reply ·

adman

Way to go Queerty, stirring up another tempest in a teapot to try to steal another party’s thunder. You won’t succeed, but still; pretty scummy. This duo went viral with a truthful concept: that anti-GLBT activists are the dregs of humanity and we can prove it, yet you can’t stand it? **Throws hands in the air**…I guess you got the extra hits you need or whatever “unsavory blogger drama” YOU were trying to concoct. This story is a Queerty fail, plain and simple.

May 11, 2010 at 5:54 pm · @Reply ·

B

No. 22 · PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS wrote, “I don’t know how you guys came to gather this info but sources and informants are part of the game. It is beyond belief that anyone who identifies as Gay can have anything but praise for you guys.”

According to the article they just posted a link to, their “informant” was someone “entrusted” with the rentboy’s passwords and might not have been authorized to access the accounts. If so, he could suffer the same fate as the guy who published some of Sarah Palin’s emails if caught. I really don’t like Palin, but that doesn’t change the fact that breaking into her email account was a crime. He was convicted at the end of April. The maximum penalty for the convictions is 25 years in jail and a $500,000 fine, plus he could be retried on charges for which the jury failed to reach a verdict. He better grovel if he wants the judge to be lenient.

@B: If in fact that is the case I am hoping there is a lawyer in Florida with a consicnce and offers them swift counsel on how to avoid any negative reprecussions from this drama. The righwing has basically declared war on all things Gay attempting to deny our benefits, rights, and many seek to basically send us all to Gay internment camps. Their actions resulted in toppling a person who has and had the ability to cause tremendous damage to the Gay community. Because of their actions, he has been rendered as ineffective as his pathetic combover, never again to be allowed to spew his vile hatred on what sickly turns out to be his own kind. The Gay community in Florida needs to rally to protect and defend them……….

May 11, 2010 at 6:58 pm · @Reply ·

jeffree

With mainstream media in financial & freefall, it’s up to the alt.press & blogosphere to rout out stories like Penn & Brandon broke about this “herniated homophobic horndog preacher professor with a passion for erotic massage from paid male companions.”

Brandon & Penn deserve our support, not our snarky scorn.

Criticisms about not “following standard journalism methods” just try 2 deflect the attention from the *real story* about how a FOF/FRC & NARTH leader & supposed expert on *treating* homoSEXuality couldn’t even stop his own urges for young men
[possibly including you know, like the 16 yearold boy he adopted!]

May 11, 2010 at 7:05 pm · @Reply ·

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

@jeffree: As usual here on Queerty St. some posters feel the need to tear down our own and assemble a circular firing squad………

May 11, 2010 at 7:45 pm · @Reply ·

Jeff

@Penn: This explanation would have not been needed had you guys done a better job at getting the facts and explaining them accurately and clearly. You are both young and inexperienced, but surely you have editors no? How did others miss the wholes in the story? And this new explanation still does not address all the doubts. Besides, what is this whole thing about “an authorized user” who found Reker’s info? I mean, how many young gay people in America, or gay people for that matter, knew of this creep? Did you two know who this man was before your so-called “scoop”?

May 11, 2010 at 8:26 pm · @Reply ·

Oscar

Unzipped is starting to make a stronger case about this whole mess, and yes, it is a mess. I am not liking it one bit. Do the means justify the end? I am not so sure, but I am now having serious doubts about the veracity and accuracy of these two writers.

Thorp and Bullock are heroes. Everything I’ve read so far regarding the story falls well within journalistic standards as far as I’m concerned. What’s more, the responses from Rekers and NARTH are incredibly inept, while Roman’s sound sincere. It’s amazing that Unzipped and Queerty are sounding like bitches in all this. They should be grateful that an organization like NARTH can be further discredited in front of a general audience, no matter who does it.

May 11, 2010 at 9:06 pm · @Reply ·

B

No. 25 · PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS wrote, “@B: If in fact that is the case I am hoping there is a lawyer in Florida with a consicnce and offers them swift counsel on how to avoid any negative reprecussions from this drama.”

Interestingly, when I commented that they should get competent legal advice in order to stay out of trouble, that comment, No. 19 (as of right now) got 2 positive and 2 negative ratings, suggesting that some people would rather keep their heads in the sand.

BTW, it might be interesting (particularly for the two reporters in question) to read the following, and ask whether the standards of what was “news” 70 years ago were better or worse than the standards today: http://www.anusha.com/roosevel.htm .

May 11, 2010 at 9:11 pm · @Reply ·

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

@B:Agreed some of the negative checks make me wonder. Along with as Jeffree pointed out recently on certain threads, you suddenly see posters who never made appearances prior and suddenly appear magically. And they tend not to make vile, rabid, anti-Gay posts, but seem to want to cast negativitiy on a positive event. As in this thread these supposed Gay persons seem to miss the whole point that a man who caused considerable damage to the Gay community for decades has been silenced and will never again have an iota of credibility in any fourm whatsoever to spew his vile anti Gay diatribes. And yet instead of taking satisfaction in knowing that vile scumbag will never be able to toss his hatred on the Gay community, they seem to be more concerned that “someone may have been tipped off” or being concerned more with “the mess”……… Makes one wonder……………..

May 11, 2010 at 9:34 pm · @Reply ·

B

No. 32 · PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS wrote, “As in this thread these supposed Gay persons seem to miss the whole point that a man who caused considerable damage to the Gay community for decades has been silenced and will never again have an iota of credibility in any fourm whatsoever to spew his vile anti Gay diatribes.”

While its nice that Rekers will at least temporarily be discredited regarding any anti-gay statements, I do know people who think he is more to be pitied than hated – his possibly fundamentalist-religion fueled homophobia is probably at pathological levels, causing him to behave the way he has. Those with this view are basically saying that Rekers is mentally ill, and thus should be viewed similarly to a schizophrenic who commits a terrible crime as a result of that illness.

I think Thorp and Bullock are being given more credit than they deserve, however, because it is next to impossible for them to have discovered that a friend of “Lucien” found email exchanges between “Lucien” and Rekers unless Lucien’s friend contacted Thorp and Bullock on his own. That guy is taking a lot of risks, much more so than Thorp and Bullock, since (depending on his arrangement with Lucien) he may have committed a serious crime in accessing Lucien’s email account. By divulging how they found out about Rekers and Lucien, even without giving names, they may have put their source at risk, as there is now a lead for an investigation. Rekers could pick up on it (he already said he is considering a defamation suit) and there is now unwitting allegations of criminal activity, which Rekers can make use of through a process called “discovery”, triggering (expensive) legal arguments about Florida’s shield law, which is not an unqualified one. Being caught in the middle of that could ruin your day.

I suspect a lot of them probably don’t realize how much trouble they may have gotten themselves into. The one thing that might save them is that Rekers might decide that letting things quiet down has a higher priority than getting some revenge, or that their collective net worth won’t cover legal expenses.

May 11, 2010 at 11:06 pm · @Reply ·

jeffree

Rekers has resigned from NARTH & his resignation has been accepted per talkingpointsmemo.com.

What allies does he have left?
Serves him right.
I’m not an attorney, but if the Miami New Times or its writers get sued I doubt it would be by Rekers because his own inconconsistent stories & questionable actions would be revealed. Just my hunch.

May 11, 2010 at 11:27 pm · @Reply ·

B

No. 34 · jeffree wrote, “I’m not an attorney, but if the Miami New Times or its writers get sued I doubt it would be by Rekers because his own inconconsistent stories & questionable actions would be revealed. Just my hunch.”

Suppose Reckers or Lucien sues the person who leaked the email between Reckers and Lucien to the Miami New Times, claiming damages that resulted from a criminal act?

@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Wow, what arrogance you have, over and over, in each posting! Man, you don’t own this blog, so please, stop bitching about who can come in and comment or not. You blast anyone who has a different opinion from yours, and won’t even bother reading what people say. This is a democracy last time I checked, and in this democracy we have something called blogs, or websites with a forum. Do you know what a forum is? For a variety of points of view and opinions. I think we ALL agree that Rekers is scum, a creep, blah blah blah. NO ONE is arguing that. But… there are some serious issues that keep revolving around the manner in which this story was carried out, that have yet to be fully explained and cleared. So why is it so difficult for you to understand? Why do you have to attack anyone who raises a question? You sure sound more and more like a friend of the writers. This has been raised by numerous people in various outlets, so learn to respect other criteria. Yes, let’s celebrate Rekers’ downfall, but enough with this image of the writers as heroes and the escort as a gay advocate and the story written out of the pureness of their hearts. Neither you, nor I, knows all the details yet.

@B: Gotcha. Thanks. I missed that angle.
With Rekers being practically a pariah, his paid speaking/ teaching/ consulting/ preaching gigs may dry up, so he might be tempted to revive his “good name” by pressing charges. From what I understand –perhaps mistakenly –that would still involve having to answer tough questions about his “arrangements” with the rent boy Jo-Van. Kinda embarassing but maybe he’s got nothing left 2 lose. JoVan’s no saint but so far his hands seem pretty clean [other than the oil needed for the Long Stroke !!]

I suspect more details will pop up. Lawyers will circle around like retirees at an all-you-can-eat buffet!

May 12, 2010 at 1:25 am · @Reply ·

B

No. 43 · jeffree wrote, “Lawyers will circle around like retirees at an all-you-can-eat buffet!” … I’m sure they will, at least if they see a likely target with any meat (i.e, money) on it.

The iPhone case is a mess with reasonable arguments on all side, but if you are poor and are in a legal mess, you typically end up losing because a mess requires legal expertise you can’t possibly afford. Unfortunately, Rekers has financial resources that will completely swamp “Lucien” and the guy who let the cat out of the bag, if Rekers decides to file a lawsuit.

And Lucien may not be completely off the hook either because he “entrusted” his passwords to an unreliable third party, showing a lack of due care (Lucien could have managed multiple passwords via a “security device”). For instance, Firefox will remember logins and passwords for web sites and store those in an encrypted file, so there is only a single password that you have to remember. Legal arguments about what level of computer security is expected of a rentboy to maintain the privacy of his clients would, of course, be an issue for the courts to decide, a rather bizarre one good for a few laughs (if you don’t have to pay the lawyers doing the arguing – if you did, it would be anything but funny).

May 12, 2010 at 2:16 am · @Reply ·

WalkderDC

Look, the truth is an absolute, so Rekers has no case against them for damages. If it’s true that an “Authorized User” of Romans account gave them the tip, then Roman has no case against them. It was somebody he authorized to access his account, he let them in at his on risk. The paper did not print his e-mails, they just used them to follow a tip and snap the picture. There is nothing that can be done to them here. To the people saying they did shoddy work etc… phony right wing crap. Following the tip isn’t shoddy if it works and the got the story fool. As for the right wing declaring war? What right wing, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family completely threw Rekers under the bus and pretended that they didn’t even remember he was a member of their groups. These guys won, they got the story.

The main reason the anti-gay bigots are pissed is that they are afraid they will actually have to stop sleeping with men now that reporters might be tailing them.

No. 45 · WalkderDC wrote, “Look, the truth is an absolute, so Rekers has no case against them for damages. If it’s true that an ‘Authorized User’ of Romans account gave them the tip, then Roman has no case against them.”

Don’t be so sure. The reporters’ article did NOT say their source was an authorized user, but rather that the source was entrusted with copies of Lucien’s passwords, presumably in case Lucien forgot one or maybe in case something happened to him, but that does not imply permission to read Lucien’s email. While something being true is a defense against libel, it is not in a lawsuit for invasion of privacy or compensation for damages that resulted from criminal activity.

Example: you are going out of town for 2 weeks, and for 8 days, your parents are going to be house sitting, so you give a key to the house to a friend who is going to give it to your parents when they arrive. Suppose he enters the house, finds your x-rated video collection, photographs the covers, and sends the pictures to an uptight group you are a member of, so they boot you out. You can’t sue for libel, but you can for invasion of privacy – he entered your home without permission, rummaged around, etc., and the fact that he had a key is irrelevant.

May 12, 2010 at 6:19 pm · @Reply ·

Jaroslaw

B -I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know if what you say is true, it sounds reasonable though and that is the problem.

We need the truth and the facts and we don’t have them. Long examples like yours while well intended, don’t really get to the place we need to be.